Announcements

Rmc10
Senior Member
All Measures Imposed under Iraq Oil-for-Food Programme Implemented in Full, Security Council Concludes, Unanimously Adopting Resolution 1958 (2017)
REPORT
from UN Security Council
Published on 08 Dec 2017 —View Original
SC/13109
SECURITY COUNCIL
8126TH MEETING (AM)
The Security Council concluded today that all the measures imposed in its resolutions 1958 (2010) and 2335 (2016) pursuant to Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations in relation to the Iraq oil-for-food programme had been fully implemented.
Unanimously adopting resolution 2390 (2017), the Council welcomed the fact that the remaining funds in the escrow accounts established pursuant to resolution 1958 (2010) had been transferred to the Government of Iraq pursuant to resolution 2335 (2016).
The Council acknowledged the Secretary-General’s final report on the matter (document S/2017/820), which stated, among other things, that the remaining $14,283,565 in the administrative escrow account had been transferred to Iraq.
Following the adoption, Amy Noel Tachco (United States) applauded Iraq’s complete implementation of measures under the oil-for-food programme, although the country still faced many challenges. She looked forward to close cooperation internationally and bilaterally in support of Iraq as a federal, democratic and prosperous country.
The meeting started at 9:45 a.m. and ended at 9:48 a.m.
Resolution
The full text of resolution 2390 (2017) reads as follows:
“The Security Council,
“Recalling its resolutions 1958 (2010) and 2335 (2016),
“Acknowledging receipt of the final report of the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 4 of Security Council resolution 2335 (2016), S/2017/820,
“1. Welcomes the implementing arrangements entered into by the Secretary-General and the Government of Iraq as requested in paragraph 7 of Security Council resolution 1958 (2010);
“2. Also welcomes that the remaining funds in the escrow accounts established pursuant to paragraphs 3–5 of Security Council resolution 1958 (2010) have been transferred to the Government of Iraq pursuant to Security Council resolution 2335 (2016);
“3. Concludes that all the measures imposed by the Security Council in resolutions 1958 (2010) and 2335 (2016) pursuant to Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations have been fully implemented by the parties.”
For information media. Not an official record. DV LINK

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the organization "Daash" is about to collapse as a "state" control of large areas, thanks to the Syrian and Russian forces, and that the organization turns into a "network" similar to "Al Qaeda."

"Thanks to the effective military steps, first and foremost by the Syrian army and the Russian air space force," the project became a "state of support" in the final phase of its existence, the head of the Russian Foreign Affairs Department for new challenges and threats, Elia Rogachev, told Interfax news agency. Under his control are shrinking. "

However, Rogachev pointed out that the terrorist organization is still able to survive, although it does not flourish, as it did two years ago, adding that "Da'ash" is still receiving large sums of money, including from abroad.

The Russian diplomat stressed that the issue of supplying the organization with weapons from abroad is still on the table, pointing out that the terrorists "Daash" were able to seize part of the weapons of the Iraqi army and weapons allocated to the Syrian opposition, "moderate", in addition to the manufacture of some weapons locally and buy another part on the black market .

"It is clear that all this is not enough to go on the battle on several fronts for six years without the lack of weapons or ammunition," Rogachev said.

The Russian diplomat also confirmed that the terrorist organization "Da'ash" is turning into a network similar to al-Qaeda, spread around the world.

"He has more and more advocates of an organization that we know as Al Qaeda, which is transformed into an organization with a horizontal control system and independent cells in different regions and regions," he said, adding that these cells "are independent of one another, Flow of money or anything else. "

Rogochov pointed out that the mercenary terrorists who had poured into Syria and Iraq to fight in the ranks of the "Da'ash" were fleeing from there now and returning home.

I can not understand where this country is headed, more specifically the citizen thought process. I have watched this country lose it's foundation over the course of these last eight years. It yet continues with not standing for the National Anthem.

2

8

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I can not understand where this country is headed, more specifically the citizen thought process. I have watched this country lose it's foundation over the course of these last eight years. It yet continues with not standing for the National Anthem.

Yeah. Unfortunately the idiots that participate in those stunts get way too much publicity and attention, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Share on other sites

I can not understand where this country is headed, more specifically the citizen thought process. I have watched this country lose it's foundation over the course of these last eight years. It yet continues with not standing for the National Anthem.

Hey Chuck, it is all they know. A complete change in thought process takes time with a whole country. Getting an entire country on board with a new government and concept of really a whole new country. It is not like the US with the revolutionary war when we wanted out from under the control from England. Iraq is not under the control of any other country, although some like to think (Iran). So getting the people of Iraq to change there entire concept of living is a big adjustment. Yes to us 8 years seems like a long time, but to them this is from the beginning of time. If they can only eliminate the stooges like malarky and all his minions and followers then hopefully people can see the changes. They have come a long way in a short period of time relatively. So as much as we have to have patience in this process they have to have much much more. WE know what a free society is like, they are just learning.

I believe once they have all their ducks in a row, only a few missing at this point imo, the country will have the booming and thriving economy we keep hearing about. Just like we were forced by our own actions to be free from tyranny they are working on it. With all the talk of investment and vast riches in the country it is only a matter of time. Look at it this way what if it was the other way around and the US was forming a new government, economy, society, etc. in this day and time and the dollar was valued at .00086 to the Dinar as the currency of choice in the world. The Iraqis were invested in the dollar like we are invested in the dinar don't you think they would be saying the same things about us.

Patience is the name of the game. It is not the most liked virtue but it is a very valuable virtue.

Daesh Militants Driven Out of 91% of Syrian Territory

Over 91 percent of the Syrian territory has reportedly been freed from Daesh terrorists.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Islamists have been cleared from over 91 percent of the Syrian territory, according to figures published Friday in a newspaper affiliated with the Russian Defense Ministry.

An infographic in the Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper has showed that 91.6 percent of the land is now free from the Islamic State terrorist group (Daesh).

During the past week, Russian warplanes have made some 500 sorties, the military said, destroying almost 1,400 Daesh assets.

Russian forces in Syria have also continued scouting Daesh-controlled territories using surveillance drones. They have flown more than 190 missions during that period and identified over 129 Daesh targets.

The war in Syria has been on since 2011. A security vacuum let the Daesh seize large swathes of land and proclaim an Islamic caliphate in the areas under its control. Russia launched a military operation in Syria in September 2015 to provide air support for Syrian government forces, driving Daesh militants from much of Syrian territories.

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.

For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

DoD Official: Military Effort is One Part of Defeat ISIS Campaign

By Cheryl PellerinDoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2017 — The end of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is in sight, but the military effort is only one part of the coalition campaign to defeat ISIS, a Defense Department official told a House Armed Services subcommittee yesterday.

Mark Swayne, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for stability and humanitarian affairs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, testified before the HASC Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

The topic was DoD efforts to enable Iraq to achieve and maintain stability after the recent liberation of Mosul.

“The key to preventing the re-emergence in Iraq of ISIS or any other violent extremist organization is effective and inclusive governance,” Swayne said in prepared remarks.

“For this to develop,” he added, “the United States and our coalition partners must continue to work by, with and through the government of Iraq to consolidate military gains and stabilize liberated areas.”

Such an approach puts the military instrument of power in a supporting, enabling role, Swayne said.

Winning Momentum

The Iraqi security forces led the way in defeating ISIS in Mosul, liberating the city and freeing its people. The Iraqi forces carried a winning momentum to the next ISIS stronghold in Tal Afar, delivering swift victory there, the acting deputy assistant secretary said.

“One year ago, virtually all of Ninevah governorate was controlled by ISIS. In late August, Baghdad announced [its] complete liberation,” Swayne said. “Every day, Iraqi security forces fight to return their country to the Iraqi people and out of the hands of ISIS terrorists.”

As Iraqi security forces maintain the initiative and continue to bring the fight to ISIS, they are backed by strong Iraqi leadership in Baghdad and unwavering support system" rel="">support from a 73-member global coalition, he added.

Swayne said that to make possible long-term peace in Iraq, the United States and its coalition partners are bolstering the government of Iraq, enabling security services and promoting local reconciliation among the Iraqi people.

“In the fight to defeat ISIS,” he said, “we saw unprecedented cooperation between the Kurdish peshmerga forces and the Iraqi security forces -- fighting and taking casualties to achieve a common goal for Iraq. The recent Kurdish referendum on independence presents a challenge to this cooperation but hopefully this can be overcome.”

Long-Term Commitment

The military defeat of ISIS is the first step in a long-term commitment to rid the world of violent extremist organizations, Swayne added, noting that the seeds of the next extremist resurgence lie in the rubble of the defeat ISIS campaign.

“Following the defeat of ISIS’ physical caliphate, it is vital that the government of Iraq, with the support system" rel="">support of the U.S. government and the international community, continues to prioritize humanitarian assistance and stabilization efforts in order to allow the expedient return of internally displaced persons,” he said.

Millions of Iraqis have returned home but more than 3.2 million are still displaced because of ISIS occupation, Shayne said.

“We are working closely with the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Nations and our coalition partners on near-term stabilization activities to support system" rel="">support the government of Iraq,” he said. Examples of U.S.-supported activities include demining, removing rubble and restoring essential services and access to potable water.

DoD does not have the authority to conduct stabilization activities on its own, but it continues to support system" rel="">support interagency partners in their efforts to stabilize Iraq and the results speak for themselves, he added.

More than 2.2 million Iraqis, including more than a quarter million Mosul residents, have returned home, Shayne said, and there is more work to do.

Continuing the Global Campaign against ISIS

Shayne said part of ISIS’s success comes from its ability to capitalize on sectarian grievances and disenfranchisement.

“Allegations of abuses, extrajudicial killings and other Law of Armed Conflict violations feed ISIS’ narrative that the government of Iraq is illegitimate,” Shayne said. “For this reason we continue to advise the government of Iraq on the importance of transparency and investigating all credible allegations of abuse.”

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is personally committed to the effort, Shayne said, and has said that he will thoroughly investigate any such allegations and hold those deemed responsible accountable in accordance with due process and Iraqi law.

Even after the ISIS caliphate is physically destroyed, the global campaign to defeat ISIS will continue, he added, to bolster long-term stability in Iraq by engaging ISIS globally and preventing the flow of foreign fighters back to the region.

The deputy assistant secretary said the whole-of-government global campaign will continue to attack ISIS and its affiliates to further degrade their ability to recruit and maintain a fighting force, and the U.S.-led coalition and interagency partners will pressure the international community to counter the radical Salafi-jihadist ideology that fuels many of the world’s violent extremist organizations.

“All of these efforts will serve to help prevent a resurgence of ISIS, provide an opportunity for inclusive and effective governance at all levels to thrive and promote long-term stability,” Shayne said.

DIBIS, Iraq — The prisoners were taken to a waiting room in groups of four, and were told to stand facing the concrete wall, their noses almost touching it, their hands bound behind their backs.

More than a thousand Islamic State fighters passed through that room this past week after they fled theircrumbling Iraqi stronghold of Hawija. Instead of the martyrdom they had boasted was their only acceptable fate, they had voluntarily ended up here in the interrogation center of the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq.

For an extremist group that has made its reputation on its ferociousness, with fighters who would always choose suicide over surrender, the fall of Hawija has been a notable turning point. The group has suffered a string of humiliating defeats in Iraq and Syria, but the number of its shock troops who turned themselves in to Kurdish officials at the center in Dibis was unusually large, more than 1,000 since last Sunday.

The fight for Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, took nine months, and by comparison, relatively few Islamic State fighters surrendered.Tal Afarfell next, and more quickly, in only 11 days. Some 500 fighters surrendered there.

The Iraqi military ousted the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, from Hawija in 15 days, saying it had taken its forces only three days of actual heavy fighting before most of the extremists grabbed their families and ran. According to Kurdish officials, they put up no fight at all, other than planting bombs and booby traps.

Seen up close, the fighters’ pretense of bravado soon disappears.

Their shoes were taken from them, their pockets emptied and their belts discarded, and, as they stood facing the wall, the backs of their dishdashas were stained with the evidence that some of them had not been to a toilet in days.

One of the men smelled so bad that when he was taken into the small interrogation room, those inside were startled. He filled the doorway, appearing even larger than his actual size. The interrogator unbuckled his hip holster, resting his right hand on his pistol. Everyone in the room seemed scared of the man, even though his hands were tied behind his back. His thick black hair was Medusa-wild and shoulder-length, though his handsome face had only a wisp of black stubble on the chin.

At the Kurdish screening center in Dibis, suspects are searched, their shoes taken, their pockets emptied and their belts discarded.CreditIvor Prickett for The New York Times

“Hello,” a visitor said. “Where’s your beard?” The Islamic State requires all men to grow full beards.

“I’m only 21, I can’t grow it yet,” he said, clearly embarrassed.

Kurdish interrogators allowed a dozen of the surrendered fighters to be interviewed by a reporter as they arrived at the local headquarters of the Asayish, the Kurdish intelligence service, in the town of Dibis, near the Kurds’ front lines opposite Hawija. Officers monitored all interviews.

Many of the fighters claimedto have been just cooksor clerks. So many said they had been members of the Islamic State for only a month or two that interrogators suspected they had been coached to say that. Gone was the contempt for the world’s opinion, spewed out in one violent video after another — many of them made in Hawija, where grisly killings, especially of Kurdish prisoners, were the norm during their three-year reign over that Sunni Arab city in northern Iraq.

Most of the prisoners, though, claimed to have never seen a beheading, or even heard of such a thing.

At first, the beardless fighter seemed an exception, admitting defiantly that he had been fighting for the group for two years, alongside family members. He readily gave his name: “Maytham Muhammed Mohemin,” he said, practically spitting it out. His hands were bound behind his back and he was effectively sitting on them, forced back into a red plastic lawn chair, yet the three Kurdish officers in the room kept more than an arm’s length away in case he lunged for their weapons.

During the interview, he grew nervous. He said he was from Hawija and had joined the Islamic State because he believed in its cause, because his elder brother had, and because the $100 a month pay was better than anything else around.

He had arrived in Dibis on Thursday afternoon with eight companions, seven Iraqis and an Egyptian, after they dropped their weapons in Hawija that morning. Since the beginning of the Iraqi offensive two weeks earlier, they had spent most of the time burrowed in foxholes to escape the relentless American bombing and shelling by advancing Iraqi forces, and had passed days without sanitary facilities or food.

Many of the Islamic State fighters claimed to have been just cooks or clerks. Most said they had never seen a beheading.CreditIvor Prickett for The New York Times

Finally, the Islamic State wali, or governor of Hawija, told the men to turn themselves in to the Kurdish forces, known as the pesh merga, and to flee the advancing Iraqi Army and its Shiite militia allies, the Iranian-trainedHashed al-Shaabi, notorious for killing not only Islamic State prisoners but also their entire families.

“The governor told us each to ‘solve your own problem and find your own solution for yourself,’ ” Mr. Mohemin said. “He said, ‘Go to the pesh merga, not to the Hashed.’ ”

Mr. Mohemin denied ever attending a beheading but later, prompted by an Asayish intelligence officer, he admitted going to one, he said, because he had been ordered to.